SEARCHENGINES

Weekend Google Core Ranking Volatility

Published

1 week ago

April 15, 2024

As I mentioned briefly in my Friday video recap, I was starting to see renewed chatter on Friday morning around more Google search ranking volatility likely related to the ongoing Google March 2024 core update. I spotted some renewed chatter that lead through Friday, into Saturday and today. So I figured I’d cover it and share some of what SEOs are saying over the weekend.

We reported on volatility last Wedneday, on April 10th, and now we are seeing more of it. As a reminder, some sites got hit super hard by this update and no, it is not done yet. We have still not seen any real recoveries for sites hit by the September 2023 helpful content update recovery yet with this core update.

We are now 40 days and almost 40 nights since the update started rolling out and Passover is just around the corner. (sorry, had to…)

Both the Google ranking tracking tools and SEO chatter spiked over the past 48 hours.

SEO Chatter

Here is some of the chatter on social media, WebmasterWorld and comments here on this site over the past couple of days:

Glenn Gabe has been tracking the movement closely, comparing previously hit sites by previous core and helpful content updates. I find his shares very insightful. Here is his latest post this morning:

He wrote:

Google Morning Google Land! This is the April 14 edition of “Core Update Notes”. I shared yesterday how the tools were all spiking and I picked up serious volatility across several sites I’m helping and tracking. Just wanted to share more about that this morning. Whatever Google updated, it’s definitely having a big effect on some sites. I have several documented that reversed course (and some reversing course for the *second time* during the update). For example, I shared rank tracking yesterday for one of those sites, which is even clearer today (see first screenshot). That site surged with the March core update, then reversed course half way through losing all gains. And it just surged completely back yesterday. The site owner is on a roller coaster. And yep, he’s ready to get off the coaster and hoping this surge sticks. :)
In addition, I’ve included several other screenshots of sites reversing course over the weekend. Remember, Google explained they would be updating several systems with the March core update that would reinforce each other. They also said to expect more volatility with this update. I’m definitely seeing that as I’m tracking many sites over time.
And for those interested in sites impacted heavily by the September HCU(X), I have still not seen any bounce back. 0. I checked the visibility numbers for 373 sites heavily impacted by the Sep HCU(X) this morning and all are down heavily over time (and most more with the March core update). I’ll keep checking… and we’ll see if the old HCU classifier gets dropped at some point while Google’s systems for assessing the helpfulness of content take over. Stay tuned.

He shared some of eye-popping charts, here is one of them:

Here are more:

In addition, I shared the other day how some sites were seeing late surges or drops. Here are two of those. Big swings very late into the March core update. Again, this makes sense given what Google explained about how this update would proceed… Multiple systems being updated… pic.twitter.com/FJHMVLyk8H
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) April 14, 2024

Slowly it’s not fun anymore. Since Friday, Google’s traffic has dropped considerably on my site and all the other sites I monitor. Many keywords have disappeared without a trace, even for the main keyword my site no longer ranks, in first place is now a cleaning company that has nothing to do with the topic, but well, people certainly want a cleaning when they google for the keyword.
Result since Friday -56 per cent, unfortunately the trend is still downwards. As I am also currently monitoring my friend’s online shop: it’s exactly the same for him, -56 per cent since Friday, we no longer need to talk about sales, although his ranking is stable.

Again, same same since Friday. No let up and remaining sites heading to zero. I thought I had it figured. Not so unfortunately.

Yes, they are rolling out something awful since Friday. Sensors confirm that too.

Traffic totally dead today here in Germany

Here too in Czech

My rankings had a little wobble yesterday. It always tends to happen on the back end of an update.

Traffic and conversions absolutely nonexistent today.

Weekends were the best days of the week. Currently I’m getting like 3-5 Visitors every 30 Min. That’s really a Joke.

Same, and as compared to all the previous weeks ,this one is the WORSE.
I fear it will just keep getting worse and we should get used to this as it will be the norm.

Google Tracking Tools

Many, not all, but many of the tools showed spikes over the past 24 hours or so. These are not insane spikes in volatility, well, Algoroo and Advanced Web Rankings show massive spikes but the others are not as heated.

SimilarWeb:

Semrush:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Google Needs Very Few Links To Rank Pages; Links Are Less Important

Published

14 hours ago

April 22, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Gary Illyes from Google spoke at the SERP Conf on Friday and he said what he said numerous times before, that Google values links a lot less today than it did in the past. He added that Google Search “needs very few links to rank pages.”

Gary reportedly said, “We need very few links to rank pages… Over the years we’ve made links less important.”

I am quoting Patrick Stox who is quoting what he heard Gary say on stage at the event. Here is Patrick’s post where Gary did a rare reply:

I shouldn’t have said that… I definitely shouldn’t have said that
— Gary 鯨理／경리 Illyes (so official, trust me) (@methode) April 19, 2024

Gary said this a year ago, also in 2022 and other times as well. We previously covered that Google said links would likely become even less important in the future. And even Matt Cutts, the former Googler, said something similar about eight years ago and the truth is, links are weighted a lot less than it was eight years ago and that trend continues. A couple of years ago, Google said links are not the most important Google search ranking factor.

Of course, many SEOs think Google lies about this.

Judith Lewis interviewed Gary Illyes at the SERP Conf this past Friday.

Forum discussion at X and image credit to @n_minkov.

SEARCHENGINES

Google Core Update Flux, AdSense Ad Intent, California Link Tax & More

Published

2 days ago

April 21, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Google Core Update Flux, AdSense Ad Intent, California Link Tax & More

For the original iTunes version, click here.

The Google March 2024 core update is still rolling out, almost 6 weeks now, and we saw two shifts of ranking volatility, both mid-week and the weekend before. Google’s Danny Sullivan went on the defensive on search quality and forum listings in the search results. Google’s site reputation abuse spam policy will be fought both algorithmically and through manual actions. Google responded to The Verge mocking its search rankings over best printer. Google Search Console has a new unused ownership tokens page. Some sites may see the Google Indexing API work for a limited time on unsupported content types. And having two sites won’t result in your sites search ranking decline. BingBot now fully supports Brotli compression and will test Zstd compression soon. Google Search is testing thumbs-up and down buttons for product carousels. Google is testing new sitelinks designs. Google Notes on Search may not go away in May. Google Maps no longer supports draft reviews. Google Maps released a bunch of new maps, directions, travel and EV features. Google Ads Demand Gen campaigns now support AI image generation. Google Ads is testing a similar product carousel. Google Ads reminds advertisers that ad customizers are going away. Google Ads is testing a new horizontal ad card format. Google AdSense has these new ad intent formats. Google AdSense publishers are reporting lower RPM earnings since mid-February. Google threatens to drop links to California news publishers amongst link tax bill. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

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SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: April 19, 2024

Published

3 days ago

April 20, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google is testing more ad formats for its search ads. BingBot is testing new compression methods. Google said it is unlikely your rankings would drop just because you have two or more sites. Google says the indexing API might work for unsupported formats. Google said hyphenated domains are not bad by themselves. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Core Update Flux, AdSense Ad Intent, California Link Tax & More

The Google March 2024 core update is still rolling out, almost 6 weeks now, and we saw two shifts of ranking volatility, both mid-week and the weekend before. Google’s Danny Sullivan went on the defensive on search quality and forum listings…

Google Tests More Google Ad Card Formats

Google is testing another ad format, another card like format, for its search ads. We previously saw the vertical and tall ad cards, then the carousel horizontal card format and now here are just plain horizontal ad cards.

Google: It’s Unlikely Your Rankings Dropped Because You Have Two Websites

Google was asked if having two websites and Google finding out about them would cause the websites to drop in rankings. John Mueller from Google said that is “not likely,” adding that many people have several websites and that is fine.

Google: Indexing API May Work For Unsupported Content But…

Gary Illyes from Google said in the recent Google SEO office hours the Google Indexing API may work for unsupported content formats, but that you shouldn’t be “surprised if suddenly it stopped working for unsupported verticals overnight.”

Google: Are Hyphenated Domains Are Bad For Google Ranking?

The topic of using hyphens in domain names is one of the oldest SEO topics we have in this space. Heck, in 2004, SEOs said there was a specific Google ranking algorithm that filtered out domains with hyphens in them (Google did not by the way).

Bingbot To Test Zstd Compression After Fully Gaining Full Brotli Compression

Fabrice Canel from Microsoft announced that BingBot now fully supports Brotli compression and will soon be testing zstd Zstandard compression, a lossless data compression, for its crawler.

Google Cloud Socks

Google loves to print socks for its various swag and here are two variations of socks from the Google Cloud team. I like the white socks because they look more retro but here are nicer versions as well.